Matador
The Nazi Buzz Bomb Goes Nuclear
A view looking up at the front of the Matador, from the National Museum of the USAF, in Dayton. The mechanism visible at the bottom of the frame is part of the jig that elevates the missile from the launch truck.
The Matador’s warhead is the W5, a modified Mark 5 nuclear bomb.
The Matador was said to use low-cost materials and an engine rated for only ten hours of use in order to keep costs down.
The Matador, unlike most airplanes, used two panels on the top of its wings that could pop up which allowed the missile to turn.
Another view of the tail section. This particular Matador was assigned to service in Germany and was decommissioned in 1959, now at the Museum of Aviation at Robbins AFB in Georgia.
The paint job on this Matador, which may be original, indicates it is an earlier unit. The “X” stands for “experimental,” “TM” stands for “tactical missile,” and the “61” is the identifier for the Matador. Located at the Hawkinsville-Pulaski County Airport, near Hawkinsville, Georgia.
Aside from the painted letters on the Matador itself, I could find no sign or other information on this display, located at the the small Hawkinsville-Pulaski County Airport. During my two hour visit I saw a scattering of buildings and one man walking around who may have worked at the airport.
There were three versions of the Matador. The “A version” is the most commonly seen today. The “C” version differed primarily in its more advanced communications and guidance system. The “B” version was never produced, instead quickly morphing into the Mace missile which replaced the Matador. Hawkinsville-Pulaski County Airport, in Georgia.
The Matador and the Mace look very similar to each other. I found the easiest way to differentiate between the two is to look at the tail–a smooth vertical is the Matador. A “ribbed” tail is the Mace. This image from the Hawkinsville-Pulaski County Airport.
VFW and American Legion posts will often have a display of military equipment out front, commonly artillery, tanks, or a helicopter. This VFW location (Post 160) in Glen Bernie, Maryland, has a nuclear missile.
The trailer in this image, much smaller and lighter in capability than the contemporary photographs that I have seen, does not appear to be the original. VFW Post 160 in Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Matadors could, since they were pilotless, strike heavily defended sites, attack at night, and (perhaps) fly during bad weather when enemy planes were grounded. As a mobile weapon it would have been hard to find and destroy. VFW Post 160, Glen Burnie, Maryland.
A rear view of the Matador at VFW Post 160 (Glen Burnie, MD). The range on the “A” model was limited to a theoretical 250 miles, which assumed line-of-sight from the Matador to the nearest radio operator with no interference or jamming. I have no idea what would have happened if the Air Force lost the signal to an armed weapon while in flight.
This is the “C” model of the Matador, nested in amongst other artifacts at the Smithsonian Air & Space Annex in Chantilly, Virginia, had an improved radio system which required only two radios operators to control the weapon and which also allowed the range to extend to 600 miles.
Explosive Power
50 kt.
Hiroshima Equivalent Factor
3.33x
Dimensions
39.5 ft. x 4.5 ft.
Weight
Approx. 6 tons
Year(s)
1952-1962
Range
250 miles (A version), 620 miles (C version)
Purpose
First surface-to-surface nuclear cruise missile
Nukemap
NUKEMAP is a web-based mapping program that attempts to give the user a sense of the destructive power of nuclear weapons. It was created by Alex Wellerstein, a historian specializing in nuclear weapons (see his book on nuclear secrecy and his blog on nuclear weapons). The screenshot below shows the NUKEMAP output for this particular weapon. Click on the map to customize settings.
Videos
Click on the Play button and then the Full screen brackets on the lower right to view each video. Click on the Exit full screen cross at lower right (the “X” on a mobile device) to return.
Further Reading
- Wikipedia, Atomic Archive, and Designation Systems.
- A “Spotter’s Guide” to the Matador and the closely related Mace missile, from U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles, by George Mindling and Robert Bolton, dedicated entirely to the Matador and Mace missiles. Scroll down for many interesting quotes and photographs.
- A photo of an unassembled Matador from Popular Mechanics (August 1954).
- The Space Force Museum at Cape Canaveral has recently unveiled its newly restored Matador. In 2001 they published a history (written by Roy McCullough) of the missile systems at the Cape, which includes the Matador in context with the history of missile systems in general and, starting on page 62, a detailed discussion of the Matador itself.
- Another history of US cruise missiles, including the Matador, at Greg Goebel’s AirVectors.net.
- Matadors were deployed to both Taiwan and South Korea. This “top secret” post was sent by Ambassador Rankin outlining his thoughts on transferring Matadors to Taiwan (within range of mainland China). This 1999 article, “Where They Were,” in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, summarizes these deployments.
- Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris wrote “A history of US nuclear weapons in South Korea” in The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 2017.
- The Department of Defense has its own history of the Matador (and other cruise missiles). Many photos that I haven’t seen anywhere else–scroll down for an image of a Matador on a launch vehicle that has “tipped over,” cracking it in two.
- How the web used to be: A personal history of the Matadors at the Taipei Air Station in the late 1950s (the blog author posts photos of himself stationed there at the time but doesn’t give his name).
- The early arms race was a strange time as demonstrated by this proposal by The Martin Aircraft Company (the makers of the Matador) to attach a Matador to each wingtip of their XB-51 medium bomber. You have to see the drawings to believe it.
- Scale modelers are serious about their craft as you can see in this supposedly 1:48 scale Hawk Model Company build. Museums take models seriously, too. Here’s one, from a kit made by Topping Model, Inc., at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (though it is not on display).